This plate, like the previous, has little visual material. The words are important here, as they function as a set of "keys" that the 63-year-old Blake wrote referencing the book he engraved, as "For the Children," as a 36-year-old. The gap makes, I think, for some wild interpretations on Blake's part. It's like Jerusalem--its convuluted mythology and design--slowly devouring and "remediating" the early "For the Children."
I must say I don't have a lot of patience with Blake's gnomic interpretations, I prefer the designs, and will be happy to be finished with my own strange digi-reading of "For the Sexes." One more plate to go, which is one of the stranger designs (done in 1820) of the entire book.
And I mentioned the hypertextual elements of the "keys" pages in my posting on Plate 19. That inspired me to actually begin construction of an edition of "For the Sexes" that will feature Plates 19 and 20 as actual hypertextual documents, turning the plates into image maps.
I also got the idea of writing a paper on Blake's innovative technological "tweaks" of book technology in the early 1790s, focusing on Blake as printer, designer, and subverter of books. In it, I would look at "For the Children," "Marriage of Heaven and Hell," and "Urizen." Wish me luck.
Posted by jeb at December 10, 2005 2:05 PM | TrackBack